At The Movies (featuring members of Pretty Maids, Soilwork, Therion, King Diamond, and more) presents The Soundtrack of Your Life – Vol. 1 & 2
Another year and the world is still dominated by pandemic restrictions… But there’s musical hope at the end of the tunnel as 2022 sees the release of Scandinavian all-star band At The Movies’ first two albums, available today via Atomic Fire Records. Ready to brighten all hard ‘n’ heavy fans globally with their uplifting movie hit adaptations, the group’s arsenal features The Soundtrack Of Your Life – Vol. 2 (covers from the ’90s) as well as a reissue of their debut album The Soundtrack Of Your Life – Vol. 1 (covers from the ’80s).
Comments band leader Chris Laney, “Wow, it’s release day. We never thought we would release two albums out of having fun… crazy! But here we are, twenty-two songs and videos later! I really hope it will be your soundtrack for at least 2022… because more will come out of this, that is for sure. Cheers!”
The band celebrates the release of both albums with a music video for “Heaven Is A Place On Earth.”
“This is one of those songs that a band like Kiss or Bon Jovi should have had back in the day, an instant feel-good rock song. I loved it from the get-go. I never really liked Belinda’s vibrato, so I’m happy to have new voices on that one. I think most people wanna pop open a brewski and raise their glasses hearing this!”
Originally performed by Belinda Carlisle and featured in the 1997 film Romy And Michele’s High School Reunion, At The Movies’ interpretation can be viewed at THIS LOCATION.
Order both albums combined as a limited box set (includes cassette tapes, walkman, sunglasses, and keychain) or separately in various formats (CD/DVD-digipak — DVDs include videos for all tracks — vinyl, and digital), or stream them via the links below.
Additionally, secure your copy of the “Last Christmas” 7″ on red vinyl (includes the B-side “Waiting For A Star To Fall”) HERE.
View the band’s previously released videos for “Waiting For A Star To Fall” HERE, “Last Christmas” HERE, and “(I Just) Died In Your Arms” HERE and check out the band’s YouTube channel for more HERE.
The Soundtrack Of Your Life – Vol. 1 reissue Track Listing:
Vol. 1 (reissue): https://music.atomicfire-records.com/soundtrack1
1. Intro
2. No Easy Way Out (Rocky IV)
3. Maniac (Flashdance)
4. Man in Motion (St. Elmo’s Fire)
5. A View To A Kill (A View To A Kill)
6. (I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life (Dirty Dancing)
7. Wouldn’t It Be Good (Pretty in Pink)
8. We Don’t Need Another Hero (Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome)
9. The Power Of Love (Back to the Future)
10. The Heat Is On (Beverly Hills Cop)
11. The Neverending Story (The Neverending Story)
12. Far From Over (Staying Alive)
13. Last Christmas (Bonus Track)
The Soundtrack Of Your Life – Vol. 2 Track Listing:
1. Waiting For A Star To Fall (Three Men And A Little Lady)
2. King Of Wishful Thinking (Pretty Woman)
3. The One And Only (Doc Hollywood)
4. When You Say Nothing At All (Notting Hill)
5. (I Just) Died In Your Arms (Never Been Kissed)
6. (You Drive Me) Crazy (Drive Me Crazy)
7. Heaven Is A Place On Earth (Romy And Michele’s High School Reunion)
8. Crush (Sabrina Goes to Rome)
9. I’ve Been Thinking About You
10. Venus (Grumpier Old Men, etc)
11. I Want It That Way (Drive Me Crazy)
About At The Movies:
If there are two things that we ever-arguing humans can agree on, it’s movies and music. A close inspection of all those iconic, generation-defining, mind-blowing flicks of the ’80s and ’90s reveal that it’s the very amalgamation of the two that does the trick: There’s no blockbuster from that era that doesn’t have an equally legendary theme song or soundtrack.
Explosive all-star assembly At The Movies are fully aware of this. On their rocking and blockbusting cinematic spectaculars The Soundtrack Of Your Life – Vol. 1 & 2, the supergroup led by Chris Laney (Pretty Maids) turn some of the most memorable and quintessential film songs of the ’80s and ’90s into hard rocking, entertaining versions you most certainly haven’t heard before, nor ever expected to. Grab your popcorn, take a seat: We’re at the movies, the lights go down and the show is about to begin.
“I just love to disappear for a while. Shut out the real world and just think of something else for two hours – even more so last year,” Laney says of his passion for movies, citing E.T. as his all-time favorite. “I was watching all these movies during lockdown because I had literally nothing better to do,” he remembers. “I confess that I am a sucker for rom-coms like Music And Lyrics with Hugh Grant. This film features this unbelievably cheesy song ‘Pop Goes My Heart’ and I just loved that song!,” the Swede laughs. “I instantly needed to make a demo of that song right away because I wanted to find out how it would sound as a rock version.”
Just for fun, he sent it to Danish drummer Allan Sørensen (Royal Hunt), who was equally excited about the prospect of interpreting famous theme songs. “And that’s what started it all,” Laney shrugs. “We were simply looking for something to have fun within these times, so I called up a couple of friends and everybody was very eager to join.” Laney’s musician “friends” — namely Björn “Speed” Strid (Soilwork, The Night Flight Orchestra), Linnéa Vikström (Ronnie Atkins, Therion), Morten Sandager (ex-Pretty Maids), Pontus Egberg (King Diamond, Wolf), and Pontus Norgren (HammerFall), just to name a few — would ultimately form the super group that is At The Movies. “I am blessed to be friends with all these talented people,” says Laney. “I played in bands with some of them, I worked with some others individually, played live, or simply met them on the road. The interesting thing is that we still haven’t been in the same room. Yet.”
With Volume 1 focusing on the ’80s, At The Movies offers their wildly entertaining and uplifting take on classics like “St. Elmo”s Fire” (from St. Elmo’s Fire), “We Don’t Need Another Hero” (from Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome), “The Power Of Love” (from Back To The Future), and “The Neverending Story” (from The Neverending Story). “Picking songs was fairly easy,” the mastermind explains. “I knew that I wanted to focus on the non-rock songs. Of course, there are great ones like ‘Danger Zone’ or ‘Eye Of The Tiger,’ but they already are rock songs. We wanted to see what happens when you take disco songs or these huge and dramatic pop ballads and turn them into rockers. In the end,” he laughs, “this meant replacing lots of saxophone with electric guitars.”
Volume 2 directly plunges into the ’90s. “Waiting For A Star To Fall” (from Three Men And A Little Lady), “When You Say Nothing At All” (from Notting Hill), the riff-heavy rocker that once was Jennifer Paige’s teen pop soundtrack anthem “Crush,” or the furious glam rock extravaganza “Venus” make it pretty clear that their only agenda was fun. After all, why would a troupe of well-established heavy metallers take on a song like “I Want It That Way” by Backstreet Boys? “We were going for songs you wouldn’t normally take on as a rock band,” Laney tells us. “What we were asking ourselves all the time was: Can we get away with this? And of course, we can because we have nothing to lose. We can do whatever we like.” He marvels: “We never actually thought anybody would care about that, but then suddenly, the uploaded songs became quite popular. And there we were, doing song after song. Every Thursday at 7:00pm.”
With the parallel reissue of Volume 1 (including a bonus track) and the brand-new Volume 2, At The Movies proves to be movie lovers with a heart of rock and a penchant for fun. Recorded remotely, brought together in Laney’s home studio, both installments of The Soundtrack of Your Life offer up some of the finest blockbuster entertainment on a Hollywood scale, paving the way for future cinematic endeavors. “We’ll figure something out soon,” Laney is sure. “I would love to do a Disney special, but I’m not sure Disney will like it. Maybe we’re going back to the ’60s. You never know.” What we do know, however, is the guarantee of success once this all-star vessel hits festival stages. Chris Laney concludes: “What could be better to open up a day at a big festival with songs like these?” What indeed.
